Mass Effect 1 PC save imported to Mass Effect 2 Xbox 360?

nnolann

Posted 26 January 2011 - 02:40 PM

nnolann

Members

2 posts

Could I drag my ME1 PC save file onto a memory stick, plug it into my 360, and import my character into ME2?
I'm guessing this is not an option, though figured it couldn't hurt to ask, given the PC-like architecture of the 360. Thanks in advance.

The Demon 117

Posted 26 January 2011 - 03:45 PM

The Demon 117

Members

24 posts

You can't do ME1 PC to ME2 360, BUT, you can do ME2 PC to ME2 360. But, if you don't have ME2 for the PC, it's going to be a bit more difficult. You could always send me your ME1 save, and I could import it into ME2 PC, then convert it for you to use on the 360. These would be the steps you would have to take in order to actually do such a thing:

-Whatever DLC you save contains on the PC needs to be on the 360, and vice-versa, otherwise, the game will tell you that you're missing the DLC and won't actually load the save. You can get around this using Gibbed's Save Editor, but I've heard it nulls some people's body meshes and face textures.

Okay, so first thing's first, make sure you actually have a save on the platform you want to get it from. For the sake of this tutorial, I'm going to be starting with the 360. So, let's say I want to import my Level 30 Infiltrator, Demon Shepard, to my PC, because I want his super sexy face and all the upgrades he has. This is where our USB drive comes in. Now, you can't simply copy over the save onto the USB stick, because, well, there's copy protection on them, for whatever reason Bioware decided to put it on there in the first place. But guess what? We still have the option to move it!

So, the steps go as follows:

1.) Insert your USB drive into any of the USB ports on the Xbox 360. I prefer the back, because it's out of the way, but it doesn't matter which you do.

2.) Go into your system settings on your Xbox 360, and go into "Memory." Your device should be listed under the HDD of your Xbox 360. Press Y while highlighting the memory stick, and select something along the lines of "Format device for use with Xbox 360." BE WARNED, this will erase any data on the USB drive, so make sure that you take anything important off of it first.

3.) Now that our memory stick is properly formatted, it will show up under the Memory option as a storage device. Go into your Xbox 360 HDD, and locate the Mass Effect 2 save you want to transfer over. Press "Y," and select "Move." Select your memory stick as the destination, and your Mass Effect 2 character will be moved over to your memory stick.

4.) Now, here comes the tricky part. The way Microsoft formats the USB stick encrypts it so that the individual files can't be accessed normally, through the use of packages. However, we have a way around that, but first, let's take some precautions. Since this IS a precious game save, I don;t think meany of you would like to lose it in case something happens, so we're going to make a backup of the entire memory stick, just in case. Now, if you were to open the USB drive in Windows Explorer, you'd notice that it looks like there's nothing on there. That's because the files are hidden, and we need to enable the viewing of hidden files and folders in Windows. To do this, navigate to your control panel, go to Appearance and Personalization. I believe on Windows SP, there is a singular Folder option through Control Panel, but since I have Windows 7, we have to go through Appearance and Personalization to get to it. click on the "Folder Options" option, and a dialogue menu will pop-up. Scroll down until you see "Hidden files and folders." Make sure the circle for "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is filled in. Once it is, hit "Apply" and then "Okay."

5.) Now, if we go back to our USB drive in Explorer and open it, we'll see that where there was previously nothing there before, we find a folder named "Xbox360!" Interesting, no? If you were to open this folder, you would see 3 files, named Data0000, Data0001, and Data0002. This is what I was referring to when I said packages. Your career save is stored within these files, and it's imperative that we back them up in case anything happens to them. So just drag the "xbox360" folder to a safe place on your hard drive. It's a fairly large folder, somewhere around 900 MB, so it could take a little while. (Most of the space take up is used for system functions.)

6.) Now that we've safely back up our precious save, we're going to employ the use of a tool to extract the saves from the content packages that Microsoft uses to encrypt their save devices. This tool is called USBXTAF and it can read the individual pieces of content stored within packages. So, download USBXTAF using the link I posted, and launch it.

7.) With USBXTAF loaded, go to File, and "Open First USB Drive" UNLESS you have multiple USB storage devices connected to your computer, in which case, you will have to select "Open USB Manually" and find the letter assigned to your USB drive. With your USB device selected, you'll see two folders, one labeled "Cache Partition" and the other "Data Partition." What we want is inside of the "Data" partition. So click on it, and you'll see a "content" folder. Open this one, and you should see a few entries. Click through them until you see something along the lines of "Name_class_date of save" For example, if I were looking for my save, it would be "Demon_33_Infiltrator_010210." Right click on this and hit extract. Just to be sure, save it somewhere other than the place you extracted it to, in order to have another backup in case something goes wrong.

8.) Now that we have our career archive extracted, we're going to need something to extract the individual progress saves stored inside of them. I used Le Fluffie, but for this one, we're going to familiarize ourselves with Modio. Don't worry, you don't actually have to register a username and password for what we're going to be doing. Extract Modio, then launch it. Click on the folder icon, and locate the "Name_class_date of save" file we extracted earlier. So once again, in my case, I would be looking for "Demon_33_Infiltrator_010210." A box will pop open, detailing the info on the file. Click the "file contents" tab, and click in the white area to the right of all the listed files, then right-click, and select "Extract All." Click on your Desktop, then select the "New folder" button on the bottom in order to create a folder on the desktop with all the saves connected to your career inside.

9.) Pick a save you want to use, generally, I just use the highest numbered one in the list, but it's completely up to you. Now that we actually have a character save, we're going to need to convert it from an Xbox save to a PC save. That's where This site comes into play. Register to that site so that you are able to make uploads, then select "My Saves." Select "Browse" then locate your .xbsav that you want to use, and hit "Upload." If you did it correctly, your save should pop up top listing the name of your character, along with it's level. Select "PC export," then save the .pcsav on your Desktop.

9.) Go to C:\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Users\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Your Name\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\My Documents\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Bioware\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Mass Effect 2\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\Save. Create a folder with the same name as the package you extracted before, the "Name_class_date of save." So, for example, I would make a folder called "Demon_33_Infiltrator_010210." Toss the .pcsav into that folder, and you should be all set to go! Fire up Mass Effect 2, select that career, and load the save! Put your USB Drive back into your Xbox, and move that save back onto your HDD, and you're all done!

amplifuzz

Posted 28 March 2011 - 06:59 AM

amplifuzz

Members

2 posts

9.) Pick a save you want to use, generally, I just use the highest numbered one in the list, but it's completely up to you. Now that we actually have a character save, we're going to need to convert it from an Xbox save to a PC save. That's where This site comes into play. Register to that site so that you are able to make uploads, then select "My Saves." Select "Browse" then locate your .xbsav that you want to use, and hit "Upload." If you did it correctly, your save should pop up top listing the name of your character, along with it's level. Select "PC export," then save the .pcsav on your Desktop.<br /><br />

It was going fine until this point: 'this site' is social.bioware.com? I registered but can't find where to make uploads ...

RoboticWater

Posted 29 March 2011 - 05:00 AM

RoboticWater

Members

1,676 posts

Use the mass effect 2 save game editor to modify your choices in an existing save to your liking and import that
go here for the tutorial: http://social.biowar...8/index/2277020
scroll down to 4) Changing ME1 choices:

Orangetsu1

Posted 29 August 2011 - 01:41 AM

You should warn people about the possibility of gamerscore reset or ban.

Microsoft has much better things to do than ban people modifying their savegames on a single-player only RPG.

I was reading up on this and i could not understand what you meant as "This Site" and where to upload my save and i was also wondering if i can do vice versa? can i take a pc save convert it to an xbox save? because i do not have mass effect on my xbox anymore but all my old saves are still there so i wanna take my finished mass effect 2 pc save and get on my xbox in time for mass effect 3 any help?

OBakaSama

Posted 29 August 2011 - 02:14 PM

OBakaSama

Members

3,112 posts

I would imagine that The Demon originally had a hyperlink which would have directed readers to another website which allows for, what seems to be, a format conversion.

Seeing that the thread has been rather idle I think you would either have to get in touch with The Demon directly via PM, or try one of the modding threads in the character creation board. I'm sure someone there will know what to do.